UW-Madison stem-cell researchers announced a possible breakthrough in stem-cell research Monday that could potentially help treat medical complications ranging from strokes to Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease.
Researchers found that neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells can successfully activate to transmit and receive signals when implanted into the brains of mice.
Jason Weick, the lead author of the study, said that when researchers implanted human embryonic stem cells into mice’s brains, a new technology allowed researchers to observe stem cells’ output and input information simultaneously for the first time.
“We think that that’s actually a critical factor and probably more critical than receiving information,” Weick said.
The new technology, called Optogenetics, allows researchers to stimulate the stem cells with light, causing them to emit output signals.
“Now this method allows us some level of control the cells that we’re transplanting,” Weick said.
“Before [this finding], we transplant the cells and they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. We have no control over them.”
He said an example of applying the new technology could be using it to treat a patient with Parkinson’s disease, a disease caused from insufficient dopamine-generating cells.
Researchers could transplant customized neurons in a patient’s brain and use an implemented stimulating device to make the neurons release dopamine.
“Say you’re having a particularly bad day symptom-wise, you can [increase] stimulation of transplant using this light stimulation device to give you some level of control over the dose of your transplant,” Weick said.
Researchers have only conducted trials in mice thus far, but Weick said he is hopeful that clinical trials will begin on humans within five years.
“I feel like we’ve stood on the shoulders of giants and hopefully we’ve taken a big step forward in potentially translating these cells into the clinic,” Weick said.
While some people consider embryonic stem cells unethical, recently discovered stem cells that do not involve human embryos could help lessen ethical constraints.
Weick said researchers have produced similar results when using these induced pluripotent cells, but they have primarily focused on using embryonic stem cells, with which they are more familiar.
“We’re definitely hopeful to transition to IPS cells,” Weick said. “They just don’t act exactly the same as embryonic stem cells, but they’re working towards it.”
